Laugh or Die, written by Mikko Reitala and Heikki Kujanpaa, directed by the latter 8.7 out of 10

Laugh or Die, written by Mikko Reitala and Heikki Kujanpaa, directed by the latter 
8.7 out of 10


The audience only learns at the end that this War drama is based on real events, that took place in Finland, in 1918, when tens of thousands have died in detention, many of them executed.

In one camp, on an island, a group of actors is detained for their participation in an insurrection.
They are brought in front of the commandant and they learn that nine - was it nine? - German special forces soldiers have been shot dead and those responsible would suffer the consequences.

Frightened by the prospect of imminent death, one of them speaks out and states that they have received orders from their leader.
So far, Toivo Parikka aka the excellent Martti Suosalo has been hiding under a bandage that covered his face and used the name of a character he had played.

But when he is called out by one comrade, he takes all the blame and furthermore, he puts on a comic act, showing how he took down one German, then another, to the dismay and annoyance of the commandant.
The latter does not believe that this actor could have eliminated well trained soldiers, but pronounces the death sentence nevertheless.

He tells his right hand man that he should close his eyes when he gives the order to shoot, so that those who would fall in front of the firing squad would not upset him too much.
When they face the soldiers with rifles, they have only moments before the End.

It reminded me of the last minutes in the life of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who had been sentenced to die and has only three minutes left.
Since he is pardoned at the last moment, or there had never been anything but an intention to teach him a drastic lesson, he writes in his chefs d'oeuvre about the last moments in the life of those who are about to die, how they would rather spend time on a rock, in the middle of the ocean than depart for ever.

Toivo Parikka is inspired and just as the squad is about to send him and his mates to meet the maker, if there is one,  he starts making a joke, for he is supposed to be the funniest man in Finland, according to Helsingin Sanomat, for which I have worked briefly in 1990.
Challenged, the commandant decides to change the fate of the actors and states that they have e chance to put on a show, a comedy.

An important German general would visit the camp in a few weeks and if he would be entertained by the do that the prisoners would create and perform for him, they will survive.
If not, they will be shot and killed.

The next phase reminds of another genius,  Viktor Frankl and his Man's Search for Meaning.
Viktor Frankl has been a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp and wrote about the terrible experience.

Those who lost the desire to survive were easy to spot and would die soon after they lost the will, the sense that there is a meaning for their life.
Somehow, some of the prisoners in the camp felt it is useless to work, act for these swine.
It is up to the formidable, resourceful, vibrant, dazzling, creative, Super Hero Parikka to us e magic with cathartic effects.

Since his actors, for whom he works like a theater manager, are hungry, he asks for food, since they would not be able to do anything without it.
He threatens he would swim to the shore, from the island, which is eight kilometers away or thereabouts and as he jokes permanently he says:

I will swim for nine kilometers, just to be sure...
Or you shoot me!

They would put on a comedy, which talks about the Russians having smaller penises than the Germans, the latter having fucked the Finnish very hard.
The 'Ruskies' have always kept a pressure on Finland and have even invaded the country.

In fact they have a joke about that, learned from The Economist...

At the border, the frontier police stops this individual:

Name?
Vladimir Putin
Occupation?
Not now, just visiting this time...

Laugh or Die is a remarkable motion picture.